Well, maybe the story isn’t funny as in “LULZ Jeffalytics, UR hilarious.” More like a story that will have you laugh awkwardly, learn more about me and think deeply about your own prospects.

So do you want to hear it? Then keep on reading.

The story I never tell on this blog (about me being a public servant)

When I graduated college, there was a recession in the United States. Something about a web 1.0 bubble bursting. Thousands of workers moved away from Silicon Valley to Minneapolis looking for any work they could find.

They got all of the good jobs, and I took the first and only job to call me back. Working for Minneapolis Public Schools.

Yes, I started this game as a civil servant. I drew a paycheck from the government and I was even part of a union. You won’t find this on my LinkedIn or anywhere else, but it happened. For over two years.

And I was miserable.

Why was I miserable? Because I had the skills to make websites and income online, but not enough money to pay the bills.

Then I met a business associate who turned into a friend, mentor and business partner.

His name is Hucky, and I owe him my career.

My first apprenticeship – Building niche websites

With my friend Hucky, we started building websites about niches like the NFL Draft, HBCUs (Black Colleges), and evenBodyguarding. You will see that site is still up and running at bodyguardcareers.com.

Our arrangement started out interestingly enough. I was a hired gun, making websites for his niches and paid by the hour. Eventually our relationship developed into a partnership where we shared in the website profits. We had many good years together. Hucky was the master of business, sales and many other things, and I was the master of the technical and marketing aspects of the site.

Hucky taught me so much. How to compose myself as a businessman. How to allocate resources and how to generate revenue online. We still have a strong relationship today.

My second apprenticeship – Building an agency

When I met Dan, Dave and Scott, Three Deep was a niche marketing service provider focused on marketing automation and email marketing. The biggest problem for their clients were generating enough leads to justify marketing automation and email marketing.

I brought my expertise to the table, and we grew a tremendous business together. Within 5 years we had grown revenue by 500% and were named a fastest growing company in the United States 5 times.

Three Deep still continues to thrive as a business to this day, and I am thankful every day that I met Dan, Dave and Scott. They taught me the business of marketing, how to form a profitable agency, and how to turn a good idea into a thriving business. I learned accounting, sales, account management, product management, personnel management, business structure, people skills and ping-pong prowess during my years at Three Deep (among other things).

While this was never a formal apprenticeship (more like a partnership), the experience was tremendous. I went in thinking I knew everything, and walked away with an understanding of how much more I could learn.

These two experiences gave me an incredible amount of experience, and also set me up for current foray with entrepreneurship.

This year, I am looking for young entrepreneur(s) to help me grow my business and grow their skills.

Introducing the 2016 Apprenticeship with Jeffalytics

So why lead with this long story to introduce my apprenticeship? The answer should be obvious at this point.

Much of my success as an internet marketer and entrepreneur came from these two experiences, and now I am looking to pay the experience forward.

Jeffalytics is seeking an apprentice (possibly more than one) to help run an aspect of my business in 2016. This apprentice will work to complete objectives, grow readership and revenues, and generate profitable results for my business.

The apprentice will receive advice, autonomy, mentorship, inspiration and (most importantly) loads of experience for their efforts. Oh, and fair compensation as well.

Are you a skilled marketer, but afraid to take the risk into a full-fledged career? Are you looking for a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from a successful marketer? Are you on the verge of something great and just need an extra push?

Then maybe we should work together.

Keep on reading for more information about how to apply to be an apprentice.

What type of work will the apprentice be doing?

There is a strong idea in my mind of what I want the apprentice to accomplish. It will likely fall into many of the following categories:

Now I understand that my future apprentice may not have skills in any of these areas (but I at least hope you can have fun). That is what the apprenticeship is for; to learn new skills and try new techniques.

I also understand that the apprentice may have stronger interests and aptitudes in certain areas. Rather than try to force someone to be good at many things, we may be able to arrange the apprenticeship to focus on a specific area of success.

The terms of the apprenticeship

Formally, this apprenticeship will last between February of 2016 until the end of the year. But in reality, one of the following things will happen.

1) The apprentice won’t make the effort needed to be successful, which means they will not be a good fit, and we will end our relationship prematurely.

2) The apprentice will deliver great work and grow an aspect of the business to the point that we continue to work together well into the future.

Ideally, we will work together until you feel there is nothing left for you to learn.

The application process (each step is mandatory)

Step 0: Listen to this Podcast Episode

In order to fully understand the value of mentorship, you need to listen to this episode from the Tropical MBA Podcast. It is a 37 minute listen, and is well worth your time, even if you have no interest in this apprenticeship.

Step 1: Fill out the form (deadline is January 29, 2016)

Fill out the form below as best as you can. You will immediately receive a percentage grade that shows how closely you fit that criteria that we are considering. While this does not necessarily prohibit you from winning, if you are below 65%, your chances are probably not very good.

This form should take 5-10 minutes to fill out. Make sure to use your preferred email address so that I can reach out to you when the application process is complete.

The form is embedded at the bottom of this post.

Step 2: The Test (only sent to those who pass Step 1)

After step 1 completes and we have a list of viable candidates for the apprenticeship, we will be giving an assignment to determine the best candidate. The assignment will involve a real world problem Jeffalytics faces as a business and how the candidates will approach the solution.

These details will only be sent out to the qualified candidates from Step 1.

FAQs for the apprenticeship program

Isn’t this a lot of work?

Absolutely. I know there will be thousands of people interested in this process and hundreds of applicants for the position. Do you know how much work it is to sift through that many applications?

It takes a lot of work to gain trust with someone you are meeting over the Internet, so we are both putting in a lot of effort to make this work.

Why would I want a Jeffalytics apprenticeship?

You are getting the opportunity to work with a world class marketer. And by world class, I truly mean all over the world (I spoke in 5 countries in 2015 alone). Not only that, but as a digital nomad I am building this business from locations all over the world (currently Argentina).

I have generated billions (with a b) in revenue for clients using online marketing, tens of millions for my businesses and millions for myself. Jeffalytics has been featured in several top online publications, like Moz, the Official Google Analytics Blog, Search Engine Land and many many more.

How much will I get paid?

That is the wrong question to be asking. You shouldn’t be doing this for the money. You should be doing this for the experience. But I don’t expect you to work for free. Compensation will be market competitive.

You will not get rich from this apprenticeship. But you will gain knowledge of how to generate wealth for yourself, start your own business, and own your work freedom.

I am turning comments off for this post, because I don’t want people to think they can apply through comments. But if you have questions, you should be able to find my email address pretty easily. If you can’t even find my email address? Then you probably won’t make it as an apprentice.

About Jeff Sauer

Jeff Sauer is an independent Digital Marketing Consultant, Speaker and Teacher based out of a suitcase somewhere in the world. Formerly of Minneapolis, MN and San Francisco, CA.